DMK Rajya Sabha MP and party's organizing secretary R.S.Bharathi has lit up the fresh controversy after airing demeaning and derogatory statements against the journalists and the Dalits under the guise of upholding the Dravidian movement. Being one of the party's senior leaders, he has been caught up with strong criticism among the media after his address went viral on Monday.

Addressing in an event of Kalaignar Readers' circle that was organized at Anbagam, the DMK Youth Wing headquarters in Chennai on Saturday, Bharathi has gone to the extent of comparing the media channels with 'Red Light Area' in Mumbai and by slashing the journalists after claiming that they are running campaign against DMK, he upheld the Dravidian movement, which, he claims, made Tamil Nadu as the best Indian state.

In his speech that lasted for about 12 minutes, he stated that the appointment of Dalits as High court judges was possible because of the dole given by the Dravidian movement. By highlighting that till now no Dalit has become the Justice of Madhya Pradesh High court, he claimed that after Kalaignar Karunanidhi became Tamil Nadu Cheif Minister, A Varadarajan has become the first Dalit judge in Madras High court after which about seven or eight more from Adi Dravidar community were appointed as the Justices of Madras High court.

He went on to claim that the party is neither against Hinduism nor Hindus and he stated that the priests at the temples won't be getting money if the members of DMK don't go to temples. By replying to the notion that the DMK is against Hindus, Bharathi said that most of the people in the hall have holy ash on their foreheads and added that "We build temples, we paint temples but we are not allowed inside temples and this is the reason why the party is opposing such notion". He then unleashed his attacks against the journalists. He stated that these journalists have no other jobs and they don't write about anything that others are doing. They didn't care when Prashant Kishor worked for Arvind Kejriwal and Modi and after DMK inducted him for 2021 state legislative elections, the media is now debating due to agony.

He further stated that the media are running their companies like the red-light areas in Mumbai and they are making a headline out of anything just because they are getting paid and they are making the debates if DMK President Stalin visits a temple. He asked the media is his visit the most important thing in the country now? Being a senior advocate, he also said that the Supreme court has become the RSS camp and the judiciary has been dominated by the Brahmins.

பிப்ரவரி 14ம் தேதி சென்னை அன்பகத்தில், கலைஞர் வாசகர் வட்டம் சார்பாக நடந்த நிகழ்ச்சியில் நான் பேசிய சில வார்த்தைகள் தாழ்த்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் மனதை புண்படுத்தியதாக அறிகிறேன். அதற்காக வருத்தம் தெரிவித்துக்கொள்கிறேன்(1/2)

— RS Bharathi (@RSBharathiDMK) February 17, 2020

After his speech was largely criticized on social media, Bharathi took to Twitter and regretted his statements against the Dalits and marginalized communities. In his tweet, he stated that he understood that his speech has hurt the sentiments of the backward communities and claimed that his motive was to highlight the good things Karunanidhi has done for them and on the other hand, several journalists had slammed the MP for his derogatory statements against the media and on Monday, while addressing the reporters, he stated that he had no personal intention to hurt the media and placed his regret by pointing that the party's president had asked him to meet the reporters and to place the regret about his comments.